Editorial: A test of faith on voting

Our opinion: New revelations on Russian attempts to hack the 2016 U.S. presidential election underscore the need for an independent commission.

Regardless of who you voted for, the latest revelations on Russian meddling in last year’s presidential election should give all Americans pause — and a sense of common cause to protect our democracy.

They’re also all the more reason we need an independent investigation, apart from the congressional hearings and the probe of the Russia scandal by an independent counsel. We need as apolitical and public a look as possible at the security of our election systems.

The latest concerns stem from recent testimony by federal intelligence and cybersecurity officials that 21 states were targeted by Russian hackers who sought to gain access to U.S. election systems. Then, on Friday, The Washington Post reported the CIA warned President Barack Obama last August that Russian President Vladimir Putin himself directed a hacking campaign aimed at helping Republican Donald Trump defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton.

The Obama administration ultimately handled the matter gingerly out of concern both that Russia would escalate its efforts and that the president might be accused of trying to help Mrs. Clinton.

Officials have insisted no voting systems were compromised.

That’s small comfort. One thing we can be sure of is that hackers — from whatever country and for whatever reason — will continue to test the security of America’s election infrastructure, just as they continue to look for weaknesses in the nation’s electric, transportation, and communications systems.

This needs to be investigated free of political agendas, something Congress is ill-equipped to do. While the Senate Intelligence Committee has done some commendable work on the Russian matter, it hasn’t been free of the openly partisan behavior that marred a similar probe in the House of Representatives. In these hyperpartisan times, it would be naive to expect legislators to set their political ambitions and loyalties aside for the good of the country. Neither chamber has earned confidence on that count.

America needs an independent commission of competent, concerned citizens, including experts on cybersecurity, to determine how far Russian hackers got, and how states can ensure their voting systems are as secure from intrusion as one can reasonably expect.

At the risk of sounding old-fashioned, that might mean returning to the days of mechanical machines and results tallied not by computer programs but by our neighbors. Yes, it was more labor-intensive and time-consuming, and there might have been the occasional local shenanigan, but citizens didn’t have to wonder if their elections were being hacked on a massive scale.

We’re told that sort of hacking can’t really happen. Yet Russia clearly suspected otherwise, and worked mightily to find out. And will continue to, no doubt.

With all the other problems in our election system — big money in politics, lies and propaganda spread instantly on social media, gerrymandering, voter suppression laws — it’s been hard enough for Americans to believe that their votes matter. The least they should be able to expect is that their votes — and only their votes — are counted.